Some of Glenn Dobrogosz's best boyhood memories are of the hours spent exploring the outdoors, turning over rocks to discover the plants and animals living underneath.

Science always grabbed his attention. He relished learning how animals found creative ways of adapting to their surroundings.

Thirty years later, that hasn't changed.

"Humans are one of millions of creatures that inhabit this Earth," says the 40-year-old Raleigh native, recently named executive director of the Natural Science Center of Greensboro.

"There's so much diversity among animals" he says. "The same reason there's so much to learn about space, there's a lot to learn about here on Earth."

Dobrogosz remembers his boyhood fascination with books about animals that breathe through their skin underwater, ants strong enough to carry more than their body weight and how nocturnal flight patterns of luna moths contributed to aviation technology. He always thought his life's work would be with wildlife and the outdoors.

He graduated with a biology degree from Appalachian State University in 1985, and worked with the Peace Corps for two years at St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a small Caribbean island.

He taught students biology, chemistry and physics. He lived in a house that was a notch above a hut, with spotty electricity and running water. But Dobrogosz had mango and bread-fruit trees in the backyard, and he went fishing and whale watching with his neighbors.

"It was absolutely one of the most amazing experiences in my life," he says.

He also got involved with a wildlife group studying the St. Vincent parrot, a colorful bird that only lives on St. Vincent in the mountainous forests.

Dobrogosz and other volunteers scaled La Soufriere, an active volcano on the island, counting birds in the trees.

That experience helped Dobrogosz decide on a career in zoo management. He earned an associate's degree in zoo management, where he also met his wife, Tonya, who was another student in the program.

Both went to work at the Indianapolis Zoo, and he later went on to work a facility in Nashville, Tenn. He then headed to Watertown, N.Y., for his first zoo directorship.

There he helped rebuild Watertown's old Thompson Park Zoo, once ranked as one of the 10 worst zoos in the country, into a nationally accredited zoological park and education center.

Community involvement plays a vital role in the work he's done as a zoological park designer. He hopes to cultivate that same support in Greensboro.

"In a small community, you want that intimacy," Dobrogosz said. "You want people to feel that ownership and be able to say, 'Look what we did."'

Later this year, the Natural Science Center will launch a

$5 million renovation of its current zoo to create interactive exhibits.

He hopes the project, combining the best elements of a museum and zoo, sparks that same curiosity among visitors to learn more about wildlife and conservation.

The renovation will create exhibits that allow kids to experience how animals thrive in their environments, he said. Kids will be able to pop their heads into clear plastic bubbles to see like prairie dogs and bounce like wallabies.

Dobrogosz officially starts work in late May or early June, after his daughter Hannah, 6, finishes kindergarten in Georgia. That also will let him help The Parks at Chehaw in Albany, Ga., where he has worked the last two years, find a new person to fill his director position.

"I love what I do," says Dobrogosz. "I wake up in the morning thinking: What can we do to tweak something different in the mind of a child and a parent to spark that interest in science?"

Contact Ellica Church at 373-7059 or echurch@news-record.com {SEND}

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Story Source: Greensboro News & Record

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Saint Vincent; Biology

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